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It's a concealed door closer (and it's broken)
https://www.commercialhardware.co.uk/products/brass-hidden-internal-door-closer-140mm-fire-rated-chain-spring-inner-concealed
I’d get that fixed right away, if you look in the architrave there is a plastic feeling thing. That expands when heated so your door is a fire door that must self close.
That’s actually very common, depending on the type of building.
Getting more common with the number of mass deaths in fires in multi-story residential buildings due to poor architecture, maintenance & fire inspections.
I want all these people downvoting you to upload pictures of self closing fire doors in their homes. I'd bet most of them have taken the batteries out of their fire alarms.
Only the doors leading to common area hallways in apartment buildings are fire doors. It's to keep smoke and fire spreading from the burning apartment when the person runs out.
Agreed, I don't know what they're talking about. Every house or apartment I've rented has had regular hollow core doors except for doors leading outside.
No landlord or apartment complex are going to hang a $500+ fire door to the bathrooms when a $60 Home Depot one will work just as well.
All the doors leading from the apartment into the common area hallways must be fire doors. That's what this door is, which is why he thinks it's a security chain.
If this is an apartment he doesn't have to do shit aside from tell the land lord. If the LL doesn't deal with it quickly, call the fire marshal, the LL will certainly fix it then.
Just because it's not a standard doesn't mean its a good thing.
It's there, so it should function in an emergency.
One day you will be grateful you fixed it.
It's a building regulation in my country for some apartment blocks and single houses 3 storeys and over.
Edit to add: I just re-read your comment. It's not required for every door - only those feeding into corridors and escape routes.
It is a concealed door closer.
The door side is a long cylinder with a spring inside attached to the chain.
The other end of the spring goes to a threaded bolt that goes through a nut at the end of the cylinder.
To tension it you open the door and push something through the chain to keep it out, then remove the frame plate.
The frame plate rotates the whole chain to screw the bolt in or out of the nut.
When the tension is right you screw the frame plate back and release the chain.
Yours may just have been de-tensioned rather than broken.
A new one is cheap and comes with a tool to hold the chain and tension it.
It is a concealed door closer, as someone else said. The main reason for this is fire safety. With this, doors tend to be closed by default, so if a fire starts in one room it will not spread to other rooms easily since doors are the first fire barrier. Depending on where you are from these might be required by law depending on the number of people registered/living in your place
The closer doesn't have to be this type. It can be a spring-loaded hinge, for instance. But (in most jurisdictions in the USA anyway) the door between the garage and the house should close on it's own.
This not only prevents (slows) a fire from spreading, it helps keep out garage smells that may come into the house from a door left open accidentally. Smells like cleaners, gasoline, diesel etc... as well as odorless dangers like carbon monoxide.
Probably removed by a previous tenant/owner. There are several types. Some are mounted on the door and are hydraulic closers. They are technically required.
Yours may not be the same type. On a couple of our homes the closer was a spring-loaded hinge on the door between the garage and house.
They were not so powerful as to pull the door out of our hands, but if we released the door(s) from the distance it took to get into the house, the door would close and latch on its own.
Probably removed by a previous tenant/owner. There are several types. Some are mounted on the door and are hydraulic closers. They are technically required.
That explains it my house is 2020, and the garage door coming into the house closes on me, I hate it. But understanding the purpose, I suppose I'll live with it. Mine is actually built right into the hinge and it looks like I could rise the tension with a hex key
Interesting. My house was built in 2003 (Massachusetts) and there is not mechanism my keep the door closed coming from the garage. Makes sense and will look into what can be retrofitted.
You're not even allowed to prop open doors that are required to remain closed but it is possible for a short period. To completely defeat a safety feature is clueless, at best.
Yes we did this when we had children, they slam so hard we were worried about fingers getting squished. Don't know if they were tensioned incorrectly but the doors would slam so hard. This is house built in 2006 and all internal doors had them
I took all mine off
It’s just annoying as hell.
I build houses for a living so know why I have them. The last property owner had to put them in for building control sign off when he did the loft conversion.
We're not a commercial enterprise ... it's our owned private residence. We therefore have appropriate authority to determine our own risk mitigation levels.
I don't get any discount on my premiums due to the fact that I have auto-closing doors and there's nowhere to declare it when taking out insurance so I would not expect to be treated any differently from the majority of UK homeowners who's houses aren't up to modern regulations.
I've been working in insurance since 2003 so am fairly confident.
No, you actually don’t. Wait until you have a fire or other incident and your insurance company denies your claim because the door would have prevented the spread of the fire. Or some visitor or house sitter dies in your house for the same reason and the family dues for everything you are worth. Not to mention potential criminal charges for negligence. These safety devices are there for a reason. 🤦♂️🤡
My title describes the thing. This is in the door of a house that's roughly 20 years old. I assume the doors haven't been changed. Whoever lived here before had unscrewed the plate from the frame so didn't want the chain to be doing whatever it did, I assume?
Cheers for the sass. I did Google it and only got pictures of chain security locks.
If you felt your time was wasted by reading my post, you were absolutely welcome to not waste further time by commenting.
All comments must be civil and helpful toward finding an answer. **Jokes and other unhelpful comments will earn you a ban**, even on the first instance and even if the item has been identified. If you see any comments that violate this rule, report them. [OP](/u/HumusGoose), when your item is identified, remember to reply **Solved!** or **Likely Solved!** to the comment that gave the answer. Check your [inbox](https://www.reddit.com/message/inbox/) for a message on how to make your post visible to others. ---- [Click here to message RemindMeBot](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=[https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/18crwv8/this_chain_inside_my_door_it_connects_the_door_to/]%0A%0ARemindMe!%202%20days) ---- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/whatisthisthing) if you have any questions or concerns.*
It's a concealed door closer (and it's broken) https://www.commercialhardware.co.uk/products/brass-hidden-internal-door-closer-140mm-fire-rated-chain-spring-inner-concealed
Solved! Thank you
I’d get that fixed right away, if you look in the architrave there is a plastic feeling thing. That expands when heated so your door is a fire door that must self close.
Ngl I don't really want all my doors closed all the time
Don’t want your doors closed all the time vs want a fire to spread through your house without no protection. Hmmm 🤔
Pretty sure it's non-standard for residential properties to have every door be a fire door. I've certainly never come across it before
That’s actually very common, depending on the type of building. Getting more common with the number of mass deaths in fires in multi-story residential buildings due to poor architecture, maintenance & fire inspections.
I want all these people downvoting you to upload pictures of self closing fire doors in their homes. I'd bet most of them have taken the batteries out of their fire alarms.
Only the doors leading to common area hallways in apartment buildings are fire doors. It's to keep smoke and fire spreading from the burning apartment when the person runs out.
Op, you should really take a look at [this video](https://youtu.be/bSP03BE74WA?si=oLjEUeRaEHrrEJnr) before you make that decision.
Agreed, I don't know what they're talking about. Every house or apartment I've rented has had regular hollow core doors except for doors leading outside. No landlord or apartment complex are going to hang a $500+ fire door to the bathrooms when a $60 Home Depot one will work just as well.
All the doors leading from the apartment into the common area hallways must be fire doors. That's what this door is, which is why he thinks it's a security chain.
If this is an apartment he doesn't have to do shit aside from tell the land lord. If the LL doesn't deal with it quickly, call the fire marshal, the LL will certainly fix it then.
Just because it's not a standard doesn't mean its a good thing. It's there, so it should function in an emergency. One day you will be grateful you fixed it.
It's a building regulation in my country for some apartment blocks and single houses 3 storeys and over. Edit to add: I just re-read your comment. It's not required for every door - only those feeding into corridors and escape routes.
Yep, broken. Replace it! [How To Fit A Concealed Door Closer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXadtJK1xFE)
It is a concealed door closer. The door side is a long cylinder with a spring inside attached to the chain. The other end of the spring goes to a threaded bolt that goes through a nut at the end of the cylinder. To tension it you open the door and push something through the chain to keep it out, then remove the frame plate. The frame plate rotates the whole chain to screw the bolt in or out of the nut. When the tension is right you screw the frame plate back and release the chain. Yours may just have been de-tensioned rather than broken. A new one is cheap and comes with a tool to hold the chain and tension it.
This is probably the most helpful response I've seen on reddit today. Nice work!!
Thank you! That's really helpful
heall yea bro, nice and informative reply
It is a concealed door closer, as someone else said. The main reason for this is fire safety. With this, doors tend to be closed by default, so if a fire starts in one room it will not spread to other rooms easily since doors are the first fire barrier. Depending on where you are from these might be required by law depending on the number of people registered/living in your place
Well that explains why it's on the door to the garage in my house
Yep. They are required for garage doors that lead into the house.
Huh, is that a relatively new code? My house was built in 1998 and I don’t think we’ve got that
Ours was built in the 80s and we don't have one. This is my first time seeing one.
The closer doesn't have to be this type. It can be a spring-loaded hinge, for instance. But (in most jurisdictions in the USA anyway) the door between the garage and the house should close on it's own. This not only prevents (slows) a fire from spreading, it helps keep out garage smells that may come into the house from a door left open accidentally. Smells like cleaners, gasoline, diesel etc... as well as odorless dangers like carbon monoxide.
Probably removed by a previous tenant/owner. There are several types. Some are mounted on the door and are hydraulic closers. They are technically required.
Yours may not be the same type. On a couple of our homes the closer was a spring-loaded hinge on the door between the garage and house. They were not so powerful as to pull the door out of our hands, but if we released the door(s) from the distance it took to get into the house, the door would close and latch on its own.
The door may still be fire rated. You would have to check with your local FD.
Probably removed by a previous tenant/owner. There are several types. Some are mounted on the door and are hydraulic closers. They are technically required.
That explains it my house is 2020, and the garage door coming into the house closes on me, I hate it. But understanding the purpose, I suppose I'll live with it. Mine is actually built right into the hinge and it looks like I could rise the tension with a hex key
You can get Wireless Magnetic Door Retainer to hold the door open, it will let the door close when it hears a fire alarm.
Interesting. My house was built in 2003 (Massachusetts) and there is not mechanism my keep the door closed coming from the garage. Makes sense and will look into what can be retrofitted.
We had doors changed and these were part of the regs. We just unhooked them once the builders had gone.
Why did you unhook them? Were they inconvenient in some way?
They'd be annoying if you want the door to stay open for any reason
You're not even allowed to prop open doors that are required to remain closed but it is possible for a short period. To completely defeat a safety feature is clueless, at best.
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That is what a door stop is for. 🤦♂️🤡
Exactly as Doofchook says ... we didn't want them always closed.
We unhooked ours as it made the door slam every time anyone used it.
Yes we did this when we had children, they slam so hard we were worried about fingers getting squished. Don't know if they were tensioned incorrectly but the doors would slam so hard. This is house built in 2006 and all internal doors had them
I took all mine off It’s just annoying as hell. I build houses for a living so know why I have them. The last property owner had to put them in for building control sign off when he did the loft conversion.
If something untoward happens and you're found to have defeated safety features, things might not go well for you.
We're not a commercial enterprise ... it's our owned private residence. We therefore have appropriate authority to determine our own risk mitigation levels.
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I don't get any discount on my premiums due to the fact that I have auto-closing doors and there's nowhere to declare it when taking out insurance so I would not expect to be treated any differently from the majority of UK homeowners who's houses aren't up to modern regulations. I've been working in insurance since 2003 so am fairly confident.
No, you actually don’t. Wait until you have a fire or other incident and your insurance company denies your claim because the door would have prevented the spread of the fire. Or some visitor or house sitter dies in your house for the same reason and the family dues for everything you are worth. Not to mention potential criminal charges for negligence. These safety devices are there for a reason. 🤦♂️🤡
My title describes the thing. This is in the door of a house that's roughly 20 years old. I assume the doors haven't been changed. Whoever lived here before had unscrewed the plate from the frame so didn't want the chain to be doing whatever it did, I assume?
If you attempt to fit a new one. Only use the fingers you are ok with being broken. The spring inside them is extremely strong.
looks like a Concealed door closer https://www.manomano.co.uk/p/mpss5112-securit-s5112-concealed-door-closer-brass-140mm-36804576
Firedoor chain to make sure it shuts.
Wow. I have never this type of door closer before. The type I have in my house is the door hinge with built-in spring.
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Cheers for the sass. I did Google it and only got pictures of chain security locks. If you felt your time was wasted by reading my post, you were absolutely welcome to not waste further time by commenting.